I did not want to say good bye to Natchez Monday. I carved out lunch time to kayak St John Lake as "Queen" Margery at the B and B had suggested. She was right, I should have listened to her and kayaked her on Sunday instead of St. Catherine's. It was interesting to see how people in the south have lake places and docks, ahem, piers. And, apparently no alligators here because I found many pictures online of people swimming in this lake.
In the late afternoon, I did my final big, old house tour in downtown Natchez, because they have a costume collection of antebellum dresses. The owner was another conundrum. He build the house after his wife died, but he did have a daughter to whom he was devoted. He was also said to be a devout Christian, but he owned slaves and had their quarters arranged in a way that he could just shut some doors and not see them.
The exterior, like many in this period, is a stucco over brick scored to look like like blocks to emulate Greek temples as part of the Greek revival style. The steps for entering the carriage are still on the front lawn as they are at many homes in Natchez. The ink well is made of paper mache that has been lacquered. A very unique piece.
Then we have one of the inevitable dresses. I liked this one because of its simplicity. The owner, like many in this area loved French porcelain and this is just one example. I saw SOO many beautiful pieces. Lastly, I snapped the photo of neighboring houses, because they reminded me a little of the painted ladies in San Francisco.
Then it was off to St. Francisville. And this is where the story gos badly. There were not many options in St. Francisville. I thought I was good to go because they had a Best Western, but this one did NOT take dogs. GRRRR. So, I thought ok, there is a "super host" for Air BNB offering a room in a cabin for $55 a night. It's not close, but I'll get to see some more of the delta. Well...it started to rain and it got dark, so I didn't see a whole lot.
I got to the house and it looked like a junk yard. There are unfortunately many homes like this in the south. There was an RV parked in the yard where someone was living. The host guided me to the "cabin" on his lawnmower. It was a shack. He said go to the door on the right. I did not look behind the red curtain on the left.
I was immediately struck by a strange smell in the place. Then it was obvious that the floor had not been cleaned lately and the microwave had a thick layer of encrusted dust on the door. I had to work on the course I was taking, so i set up my laptop in the work area and got down to business. Buddha commandeered the rickety settee. Then i started to hear noises. There were animals inside the walls scratching around. Ok, am I going to have to listen to this all night?
Then I went to the bathroom only to too late discover there was no toilet paper. There was a washcloth thankfully. While looking for toilet paper, I found that trash that had not been taken out, and I put that outside the door, hoping the smell would improve. I found a roll of paper towels but the bottom was black with dirt. There was another roll and some trash bags, so those got drafted into the bathroom for toilet paper and a trash can. I have a roll in my car, but it was pouring buckets and I was NOT going back outside. I had brought in my rain boots in case I would need to wade to my car in the morning.
The animal noises moved to the ceiling and when I looked up I saw a hole in the ceiling right over the work area about two inches in diameter. Well that's just peachy. I stuffed a paper towel in it because i wanted to discourage any critter appearances or flying cockroaches. I banged on the ceiling and told the critter to get lost. It retaliated by pulling on the paper towel. In a few moments, the paper towel had disappeared. The animal stopped fussing; I can only guess it went to shred the paper towel and line its nest.
The bedspread was fringey, so I pulled the sheet way up and over that, and I always carry my own pillow. The only saving grace about this place was the bed was very comfortable, and I was out of there by 6:30 Tuesday morning. I did not do yoga. I did not want to put my mat on that floor.
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